Don’t you just love a bowl of plain yogurt with wonderful muesli or granola on top? Served with a good dollop of honey and an excellent V60 or Chemex cup of coffee. I love it too. So why not combine that with bread? That’s what I’ve done here, and to make it even better it’s even sourdough bread. This is my recipe for granola sourdough bread.
Muesli bread is a staple in Danish cuisine, but it’s more like a sweet or a dessert-like bread that you’d eat with a cup of tea in the afternoon. I wanted to take it in a different direction, so my bread is less sweet, has a much more flavorful crumb, and man, those toasted nuts and seeds are just a treat.
If you are just here for the recipe, you can press the button underneath to be automagically transported to the recipe:
What’s granola and muesli and what’s the difference?
Muesli is a breakfast dish consisting of rolled oats and other ingredients such as grains, nuts, seeds, and fresh or dried fruits. Traditionally served with milk or cream, a squeeze of lemon, and a sweetener like honey or sugar. Nowadays it’s often served on plain yogurt.
Granola is simply toasted muesli. The muesli is toasted in the oven with honey or sugar and is most often eaten on yogurt. It is also used as a topping for various pastries, desserts, or ice cream.
Why is this granola bread then?
So why is this bread granola bread? Well, I had a hard time deciding on the name. The grains, seeds, and nuts are toasted, but not with the honey, but the honey is added to the dough, so I guess it’s mostly a granola bread, on the other hand, we eat a similar bread in Denmark, which is called müslibrød (Muesli bread).
Call it what you want. It tastes great no matter what you call it.
The dough composition in this granola sourdough bread recipe
Vitals
Total weight
1447 grams
Pre-fermented flour
8.9%
Hydration
80.5%
Yield
2 small loaves of bread
The dough
The dough in this granola sourdough bread is made from 80% bread flour and 20% whole-grain spelt flour for a delicious taste. If you prefer, you can go to 100% bread flour, but make sure you adjust the hydration to suit your flour.
The hydration is 80%, which can be a bit high for many bread flours. I give amounts of water for 70% and 75% in the recipe. If you are unsure what your flour can take, start low and work your way up.
The inoculation is 20%, which gives you are reasonable rise time in the 20°C-30°C (68°F-86°F) range. If it’s colder, you may want to increase the inoculation, and if it’s warmer, you may want to lower it.
Weight
Ingredient
Baker's Percentage
450g
bread flour
80.4%
110g
whole-grain spelt flour
19.6%
440g
water
78.6%
110g
starter (100% hydration)
19.6%
12g
salt
2.1%
25g
honey
4.5%
Weight
Ingredient
Baker's Percentage
50g
rolled oats
8.9%
50g
sesame seeds
8.9%
50g
sunflower seeds
8.9%
50g
raisins
8.9%
50g
dried cranberries
8.9%
50g
toasted hazelnuts
8.9%
If you want to play around with the dough. Change hydration, quantity, or inoculation; you can do so here in my Bread Calculator.
The conclusion of this granola sourdough bread recipe
This bread has an amazingly crispy crust, with rolled oats, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds that are toasted in the oven while the bread bakes.
While this bread is baking, that delicious smell of the toasting seeds just permeates the kitchen, and you start to salivate. The smell intensifies as it comes out of the oven, and it’s just pure heaven.
As you cut into it, a lush crumb with plump raisins and dried cranberries reveals itself, and you cannot wait to get a bite of this bread.
When you smear on a good layer of butter, the ache for eating the slice becomes almost unbearable.
As you take the first bite and the crust shatters between your teeth, the aroma from the toasted seeds inside the bread fills your mouth and enters your nose. The scattered sweet bits accentuate the feeling of utter bliss that is the bread.
Have I sold you on this bread yet? I am eating a piece of it while I am writing it. You go make the bread while I finish my slice.
Please share this recipe for granola sourdough bread on social media
This is my recipe for granola sourdough bread. If you like the recipe, please consider sharing it with like-minded bread lovers on social media.
If you make it and post it on Instagram, please tag me as @foodgeek.dk so I can see it. That would make me very happy.
50 g rolled oats, 50 g sesame seeds, 56 g sunflower seeds, 50 g hazelnuts
Put the sheet in the oven for about 10 minutes or until everything smells nice and toasty. Add everything to a small bowl and put it away until you need it.
Mix the dough
To a medium bowl add: 450g bread flour, 110g whole-grain spelt flour and 12g salt. Mix it up so that everything is distributed evenly.
450 g bread flour, 110 g whole-grain spelt flour, 12 g salt
Then add: 110g sourdough starter, 25g liquid honey and 440g water.
110 g sourdough starter, 25 g liquid honey, 440 g water
If you are not sure your bread flour can take 80% hydration, you can use 375g water for 70% hydration, and if it can take more, you can add another 20g water for 75% hydration.
Then mix up the dough until it comes together a bit.
Then add the toasted grains, seeds, nuts, and the drained, plump dried fruits.
Then mix the dough with your hands until you have hydrated all of the flour. Cover the dough and put it away for an hour to let the ingredients get to know each other.
Bulk fermentation
Perform three sets of stretch and folds spaced out by 30 minutes. After the 3rd set, put the dough in a proofing container.
Level the top of the dough, and mark where the top is and where it will have grown 50%.
Then put the dough into your proofer and set it to 30°C/86°F. Then let the dough rise until it’s at the top mark.
Shaping
Prepare a clean dishtowel with rolled oats, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds.
Once the dough has grown, divide the dough into two equally sized pieces and shape each piece into a light ball. Let the balls rest on the kitchen counter for 20 minutes.
Final-shape the doughs into boules or bâtards, whatever you prefer.
To see how to shape the bread, watch the video.
Mist the top of each dough and roll them in the toppings, then put the doughs into bannetons.
Then put both doughs in the fridge. At least for 8 hours, but up to 48 hours.
Baking
When ready to bake, heat your oven to 260°C/500°F with the Challenger inside.
Grab the dough from the fridge and dust the bottom with rice flour to make sure it slides easily off the peel.
Flip it onto the peel, then score the dough using a lame.
Add the dough to the Challenger, put the lid on, and close the oven. Turn your oven down to 230°C/450°F and bake for 20 minutes.
Then take the top off the Challenger and bake for another 25 minutes to brown the bread. Grab the bread from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack.
Put the lid back on the Challenger and reheat the oven to 260°C/500°F.
